Whooping Cough Symptoms & Treatment

Whooping cough is an infection caused by bacteria that affects the throat and nose. It is also called pertussis. It is a contagious disease that gets transmitted from one person to another if one breathes in the bacteria from the droplets of an infected person when they cough or sneeze.

Infants are prone to getting whooping cough if they are handled by anyone that has the disease. Immunization is therefore very important for them to prevent them from getting infected. Immunizations are not always 100 percent foolproof and if a whooping cough epidemic occurs, immunized people can still get infected.

Symptoms of Whooping Cough

The early signs of whooping cough: symptoms develop between 7 to 10 days and they include sneezing, coughing, slight fever. After about 2 weeks, the cough gets worse and it ends with a whooping sound which can be accompanied by vomiting in some cases.

Treatment for Whooping Cough

It is generally treated with antibiotics so as to avoid infecting people around you. In most cases, the antibiotics will not work again if the whooping cough is not diagnosed early enough.

Apart from getting antibiotics, your doctor will advise you to stay at home to get some rest and drink lots of fluid to avoid getting dehydrated. Whooping cough can last for as long as 3 months and it is called the 100 days cough.